Once again, Answers in Genesis (AiG) has posted a wild whopper responding to a Christian’s question about people being able to supposedly “choose” to be gay or straight.

The original poster asked this:

I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts and wisdom on this silly video which came to my attention recently. In it, members of the public are asked “when did you choose to be straight?” How should we respond to this question as born-again believers?

– T. J., Belgium

AiG claims that all sin is a choice and that even asking the question presupposes a position of “neutrality” where everyone would be forced to make a choice between being homosexual, straight, bi-sexual, or transgendered.

The questions being asked presuppose a neutral state from which you choose to be gay, straight, transgender, bisexual, a fornicator, an adulterer, etc. So, we must reframe the question since it does not align with reality. (emphasis added)

Does this question “align with reality”? Yes. Absolutely. And we will explore that in a moment.

[…]All people are born within the male and female order of creation. If I choose any other possibility (e.g., LGBTQ, an adulterer, a fornicator, etc.), I am choosing a perversion of God’s good design.

How can this be? Did AiG just claim that everyone is born straight and either clearly male or clearly female??  Being LGBTQ is a choice that is a deviation from the “norm”? The American Psychological Association has studied this issue in depth and while the reasons people become LGBTQ is entirely clear, one thing is clear; Being non-straight is not a choice. “Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles; most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation.”

Even if what AiG claims is true why would someone choose this lifestyle for themselves? LGBTQ people experience intense prejudice, discrimination, and are subject to being victims of violence. Sadly they are one of the most mistrusted and despised members of society. No rational person would choose this for themselves.

If sexual preference / gender identity is a choice, then why does reparative or conversion therapy fail at such an astonishing rate? Ariel Shidlo and Michael Schroeder found in “Changing Sexual Orientation: A Consumer’s Report“, a peer-reviewed study of 202 respondents published in 2002, that 88% of participants failed to achieve a sustained change in their sexual behavior and 3% reported changing their orientation to heterosexual. One would think that a active participant would be well motivated to change their preference / identity.

If homosexuality is a choice, why do we see homosexuality in other mammals in the same proportion as in humans? It’s not just limited to mammals. Although homosexual behavior has been observed in close to 1,500 species, ranging from primates to gut worms, and is well documented for 500 of them, humans seem to be the only animals that are capable of homophobia.

Even if people are born with a propensity to seek sexual affection from the same sex, that does not make it right.

I did not choose to be straight; God made me straight.

Why not? Because your god said so? If being LGBTQ isn’t a choice, and it clearly isn’t, then this is equivalent to saying having blue eyes or being non-white is a sin. You can’t have your cake and eat it too; if god made you straight then he made others LGBTQ.

In this cursed and fallen world, there are those born with ambiguous genitalia, hermaphroditism, and other genetic disorders that have resulted from sin.

AiG is clearly ok with saying that gender disorders are created by god. God can mess with your gender but not your sexual preference? This lack of consistency makes no sense in the christian world view but it makes perfect sense from the atheistic point of view. AiG’s pseudo-science and biblical responses raise more questions than they answer and the “answers” they offer are clearly are in conflict with reality.